Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment

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Magnitude of blindness and visual impairment

Since the estimates of the 1990s, new data based on the 2002 global population show a reduction in the number of people who are blind or visually impaired, and those who are blind from the effects of infectious diseases, but an increase in the number of people who are blind from conditions related to longer life spans. This new information underscores the need to modify the health care agenda to include the management of the diseases that are now becoming prevalent.

Magnitude of visual impairment

Globally, in 2002 more than 161 million people were visually impaired, of whom 124 million people had low vision and 37 million were blind. However, refractive error as a cause of visual impairment was not included, which implies that the actual global magnitude of visual impairment is greater.

Worldwide for each blind person, an average of 3.4 people have low vision, with country and regional variation ranging from 2.4 to 5.5.

These figures - the first global estimates since the early 1990s - are the best achievable scientific estimates of the global burden of visual impairment and are the result of new studies carried out in nearly all WHO regions, which have substantially updated the epidemiological data.

Distribution of visual impairment

By age: Visual impairment is unequally distributed across age groups. More than 82% of all people who are blind are 50 years of age and older, although they represent only 19% of the world's population. Due to the expected number of years lived in blindness (blind years), childhood blindness remains a significant problem, with an estimated 1.4 million blind children below age 15.

By gender: Available studies consistently indicate that in every region of the world, and at all ages, females have a significantly higher risk of being visually impaired than males.

Geographically: Visual impairment is not distributed uniformly throughout the world. More than 90% of the world's visually impaired live in developing countries.